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Naveen Challa

Naveen was born on June 25th 1980 to Subbarayudu, a landowner in Ananthapur and Parvati a housewife. The eldest of three children, he graduated with dual degrees in Math and an M.B.A, before beginning to work. In 2004, just when he decided to stop and prepare for a PhD, he saw a Varija Films’ ad for a tutor for its child actors – a job that he thought would be an easy time-filler.

On accepting, however, he was shocked by its completely crazy environment. Promising himself a month at most, he was surprised when he soon began to see a method to the madness, which slowly brought the film’s intent and content into focus.

During the shoot, Naveen was one of the few backbones of the film, working behind the scenes not just to move bureaucratic mountains, but to plan, schedule and execute its every need. He appears in the dinner party scene talking to Shekhar as Vanaja enters.

Madhu Sundarapu

Madhu was born in Chebrolu on the Andhra coast on 28th July 1981 to Babuji, a TV repairman and Saileela a housewife. He was the 2nd of 3 children, and did much of his schooling without venturing out of his village until his graduation as an accountant. When his brother and father died in 2003 and 2004 respectively, he moved his family to Hyderabad, the capital, where he had just found work as a salesman.

Faced with mounting responsibilities, he began looking for a new job and found one with Varija Films as a production assistant in November 2004. During his interview, Rajnesh remembers him as "a person who spoke so fast, that he couldn't have been but very intelligent." During his first week, when he kept getting sent out to do odd chores, he secretly wanted to leave. But when, one day, he happened to watch actors being trained, he changed his mind, convinced that there was more. On Vanaja, he took on tasks of script supervison, actors training, maintaining inventory, planning and scheduling. He appears as a policeman in the scene in which Shekhar is beaten.

Brahmam Kammari

Brahmam was born on 20th July 1982 in Kollapur and was brought up by his maternal uncle, Chandriah Atigadda, a teacher and Uma, his wife. They educated him until the 9th class, but in 1997, he came to Hyderabad and began work as a carpenter’s understudy.

Along with Babu, he was introduced to Rajnesh's parents in 2000 to build furniture, but soon became involved with his short films and was known as “the twelve-year old child-prodigy-cameraman” – a rumor that Rajnesh’s classmates had spread in Columbia. For the shoot, he put together sets and worked behind the scenes in production. He is seen as the first farmhand to whom Rama Devi hands a bonus.

Krishna Bolagani

Born in Mootakundur on 24th July 1979 to Rajalu a toddy-tapper and Sattamma a housewife, Krishna is the eldest of 3 brothers and studied until the 10th grade while working as a toddy boy in the local liquor shop.

Along with Babu and Brahmam, he initially came to Rajnesh’s parents to build furniture in 2000, and moved on to become the “Sound Man” on his short films. He was married to Sirisha in 2001 with whom he now has a son – Rajesh.

On Vanaja, he was known for his quiet, highly skilled worksmanship not only in carpentry, but in painting, scouting, planting, ageing, boom-holding, and almost anything under the sun and moon that others did not do. He is seen as the second farmhand to whom Rama Devi hands a bonus.